Oldest trick in the book

The banker then recalled, “Slim was shopping in New York, and he went to Saks.” The other men smiled, knowing what this really meant: Slim went shopping for Saks. “He estimated the square footage of the building, then he called a friend and asked about the value of real estate on Fifth Avenue. He calculated that the stock was valued at a fraction of what the building alone was worth! So he put in an order to buy.” By the end of November, Slim had accumulated twenty-five million shares, amounting to seventeen per cent of the company. (“It was clear that the price of the stock was lower than the real-estate value,” Slim says. “It was a good company with a very good brand.”)